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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28219329">Lin's Foray Into Botany</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/definetlynotaturtle/pseuds/definetlynotaturtle'>definetlynotaturtle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, I'm not really sure what this is., It was supposed to be pure fluff, fluff?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:49:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,641</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28219329</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/definetlynotaturtle/pseuds/definetlynotaturtle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lin takes up gardening after accidently setting a flower Kya gave her on fire while cooking.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lin Beifong/Kya II</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>69</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Lin's Foray Into Botany</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Did this for an exchange on Discord.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Crap. Crap. Crap crap crap crap crap.</p><p>CRAP!</p><p>This was her last hope and it had failed her. CRAP!</p><p>   Lin Beifong swore at the small garden she had spent the past several months amassing and caring for. Small however was only the word she would use due to the size of her apartment however. Her relatively small home was wall to wall pots with various flowers and plants growing out of them. It had gotten to the point where she couldn’t even look across her living room, a whole 10 meters, with how dense the foliage was.</p><p>   And it was all for nothing. She had failed. The one thing she spent nearly every second of her spare time trying to fix had ended in failure. She was ruined. And worst of all? She would have to face Kya.</p><p>   Kya. The love of her life. The free spirited woman who had started hitting on her mere minutes after Tenzin had dumped her. Air Temple Island hadn’t even been an island at that point. Something most people have already forgotten about but according to Kya she had called the display ‘hot’ and was all too happy to regal people with the story of how Lin created an island. Something Lin had found annoying at first but over time had come to find endearing, finding it harder and harder to hide her smile whenever she caught her telling some new recruit about her exploits.</p><p>   Beautiful, loveable Kya.</p><p>   She was going to kill her.</p><p>   They had been together for a little over a year. Starting when Lin had taken over as chief of police, barely twenty and already in charge of keeping order in the melting pot that is Republic City. It was a lot of pressure for someone her age but she was nothing if not stubborn. And she would keep this city safe no matter what.</p><p>   The pressure had nearly killed her.</p><p>   She was going days without eating or sleeping. She had become little more than skin and bones walking around on pure spite and stubbornness as she threw herself into her work. She was respected and feared by her subordinates, even those who were several decades older than her. But that didn’t stop her from telling herself she needed to prove herself. That she earned her position and it wasn’t handed to her simply because of who her mother was. It was something nobody but Lin thought she needed to do. </p><p>   Her stubbornness and desire to prove herself to everyone had nearly destroyed her. </p><p>   She would work herself to the bone, only stopping when she collapsed from exhaustion only to wake and repeat the process. She was working on nothing but will and coffee. But that could only get her so far.</p><p>   But even still it was several months before her stubbornness had caught up with her. She had decided to spend a night at home, the first time she had done that in nearly two weeks (she was so exhausted she didn’t even realize it was 10 in the morning), and had left the police precinct with bundles of paperwork in her bag. She had stopped by the coffee stand that was perpetually outside the front doors of the precinct. </p><p>   It was at that moment that her body had decided to give out on her.</p><p>   And when an angel had re-entered her life.</p><p>   Kya had returned from her most recent travels, and had gone to go see her ‘favorite metal bender’. She had gone to the police precinct even before returning to see her own family. Something that warmed Lin to no end. Only to see said metal bender collapse in the middle of the street while reaching for a cup of coffee.</p><p>   Lin is unsure what happened next. Her mind foggy from exhaustion and illness. Her body malnourished and weak. It would be almost three days before she woke to see Kya worried sick and looking exhausted by her bed. Her bed. In her home. With Kya. Even then and in her state that thought was enough to make her stomach do cartwheels.</p><p>   And of course she did the ‘Lin thing to do’ and immediately almost ruined it with her stubbornness by trying to return to work.</p><p>   It had led to their first fight. Both of them yelling and screaming at the other. Lin too stubborn and desperate to prove herself despite owing nothing to anyone. And Kya, desperate to keep the person she cared for more than anyone from tearing herself apart.</p><p>   That was the night Kya told her she loved her.</p><p>   And it was what led to Lin allowing herself to be more than her job. Kya, brought out the best in her. She let Lin simply… be Lin. Making all the pressure and weight of the world baring down on her shoulders. Kya simply had a way of making everything that wasn’t the two of them cease to matter.</p><p>   That isn’t to say that it happened immediately. Kya had spent the next two weeks trying to nurse Lin, who had been the most stubborn patient she had ever had, back to health. The two butting heads several more times as Lin tried to return to her work, despite her officially being on vacation. The first she had taken since starting work at the RCPD. </p><p>   And even after Lin was healthy enough to return to work Kya stuck around. Checking on Lin throughout the day. Bringing her food and giving her the nudge she needed to take care of herself. She would be at her home when she returned, sleeping on a small sleeping bag she had bought nearby. Lin had offered to get her a bed, to give her hers, to let her share the bed but Kya had declined every time.</p><p>   It was three months after Kya had returned to her life that she had finally begin to believe what Kya told her constantly. That she mattered. That the world didn’t rest on her shoulders. That she didn’t have to do everything. That she was allowed to be happy.</p><p>   She had nearly cried when Kya said yes after she asked her on their first official date. </p><p>   That year they spent together had been the best of Lin’s young life. But she knew Kya. She could tell she was getting restless after staying in one place for so long. Kya was a wanderer who loved to travel and longed to see new places and experience new things. Lin knew this. And she knew that trying to keep her here for her sake would only end up making them both miserable.  So after many discussions and coming terms with their feelings Kya left, once again. With the promise of returning soon.</p><p>   They didn’t break up and swore to remain faithful to each other. And Kya would always be welcome in her home. They were simply apart for a time. Kya, seeing the world and Lin burying herself in her work once again, albeit while still making sure to make time for her to take care of herself. Most of the time.</p><p>   It was something Kya had fully expected to happen. She knew Lin better than anyone after all. So to give Lin a reason to return to her home she had gotten her a gift. Kya had handed it to her the morning she was set to depart.</p><p>   And Lin had returned home every day since to take care of it.</p><p>   It was a tiny potted plant. Just big enough to fit in both of her palms. The beautiful flower standing proudly in its pot. Five petals adorned it with a small tuft of pollen resting in the middle. But what really struck her, other than it being a gift from Kya, was the colors. Towards the center of the flower it was a dark and deep red, but drifted into deep purples before extending into a dark and beautiful blue at the edges of the petals.</p><p>   It was the most beautiful flower she had ever seen.</p><p>   It didn’t occur to her until after she was already home, reaching over to the cold spot where Kya usually slept that she realized she forgot to ask where she got it from. Surely something so beautiful couldn’t be natural. It had to be from the spirit world or something.</p><p>   But how would you explain Kya? She is too beautiful to be real.</p><p>   UGH!</p><p>   She hadn’t even been gone for a day and she was already pining like a school girl. What had she done to her?</p><p>   She would go to bed that night reaching for a body that was no longer there.</p><p> </p><p><br/>   Lin would water that flower every day like clockwork. A dawn as she rose to begin her day, her tooth brush in one hand and a small watering can in the other. And at dusk as she did the paperwork she would have to take home to finish. The sight of it in her living room always reminding her that Kya was out there, somewhere. And that no matter how much she missed her she would return.</p><p> </p><p><br/>    Lin had been cooking when it had happened. She had always been able to do the basics and while it was nothing fancy it suited her needs just fine. But lately she had been trying to expand upon her culinary skills. Specifically, in regards to the cuisine famous in the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. She had spent the past three hours trying to make seaweed noodles only for something to go horribly wrong. Whether it be them tasting like dirt for some reason, the fancy new pasta making machine she bought purely for this breaking hallway through, or the dough catching fire. She didn’t even think seaweed was flammable!</p><p>   Unfortunately, in her panic and rush to put out the fire she failed to notice that some of the now weaponized pasta dough as clinging to her hands. That is, until it is thrown off in her rush to get something to contain the tiny flame. </p><p>   It was only after she had put out the fire in the kitchen that she noticed a second had started. This one in a very familiar clay pot.</p><p>   Any waterbender would have envied the amount of water she managed to throw across the room in that moment. But it was too little too late. All that remained of the once beautiful flower was a thin burnt stem sticking defiantly out of the soil and rocks.</p><p>   Oh crap.</p><p><br/>   “What do you mean you don’t have it?!”</p><p>   “I… I’m sorry chief. I don’t have the flower you are talking about! I’ve never even heard of it!”</p><p>   “Damn it!” this was the fourth florist who had told her that. She had taken the day off, the first since she had collapsed all those months ago, to search for a replacement. She had gone all over town from florist to florist looking for the flower she had accidently ruined but none of them had it. In fact, they all told her that they had never even heard of the flower she was describing. </p><p>   She stormed out of the tiny flower shop in a huff.</p><p>   It’s okay. It’s okay. She just needed to calm down, there were other flower shops in the city. Surely one of them must have it. Surely. Or at least be aware of it. And she would check each and every one of them if need be. She would replace that flower. She would.</p><p><br/>   How?! How could every shop in the city not have it?! And how could nobody know what it is?! How?!</p><p>   She had even written to a dozen florists all over the world, from the regaled and educated to the point of insufferable in the fire nation to the laid back and fairly disgusting swamp dwellers in the Earth Kingdom. But all had responded the same exact way. They had no idea what flower she was talking about. The apparent rarity of the flower only making her feel worse about ruining it. And all the more driven to make up for her mistake. She just had to figure out how to recreate it.</p><p><br/>   A dozen books on fauna and gardening, seven dozen clay pots, twenty pounds of soil (to start), hundreds of seeds, and letters offering advice from the most renowned florists and fauna experts the world over. All of these things were in her living room as she prepared to get to work. She had cleared her weekend in order to start and hopefully have at least a dozen plants all ready to begin blooming by the time she was done. She had assumed it would be simple, put some dirt and the seed in a pot and add some water a couple times a day. Apparently it was far more complex than she had ever thought.</p><p>   Varying amounts of water, sunlight, various types of pots, and even plant ‘food’ (whatever that is), and maintaining the proper atmosphere in her home all in order to get the flowers to bloom. All in an attempt to cross breed a flower that looks like the on Kya gave her. </p><p>   Kya.</p><p>   She had received a letter from her just last week. Apparently she had gone to the southern water tribe first before heading north east and into the fire nation where she is currently residing. Izumi apparently requesting she stay and keep her company as she prepares to take over as Fire Lord. All of which surprised her, but none so much as what came at the end of the letter.</p><p>   Kya will be returning to Republic City at the end of the year.</p><p>   It was currently halfway through spring. That gave her about nine months to figure this out. She could do this.</p><p>   At least she didn’t have to pay for any of this stuff. </p><p>   Thank the spirits for rich grandparents.</p><p><br/>   Months pass as Lin works tirelessly to try and recreate the rare flower that she had destroyed. Every second that she had of free time went into trying to replicate it. Planting dozens of flowers, determining which length, color, petal size, width, and scent all seemed most similar to the one she had lost. Growing and manually spreading the pollen into the various pistils in the hopes of finding the same mix of traits that had made the same flower Kya had given her. She shared her findings and experience with the same experts she had consulted and in turn they offered her advice and even sent her seeds of hybrid plants they had already created in an effort to help her.</p><p>   By the end of the summer Lin Beifong was becoming widely considered by the horticulture society around the world as an up and coming genius with a passion and thirst for knowledge that was to be admired and emulated. The fact that she was doing this to impress a girl she lov- LIKED was not something any of them were aware of. Nor was Lin aware of the reputation she was garnering among the florist community of the world. But despite it all she made slow and steady progress. Slowly but surely she would do what she set out to do. And recreate that beautiful flower Kya had given her.</p><p><br/>   Unfortunately for Lin after that initial success all progress ground to a halt. Flowers taking far too long to bud, if they even budded at all. Her impatience was getting the better of her, and after some professor (she didn’t even know what that was) had informed her in one of his letters that the process often took years to create new plants Lin had nearly made another island. She didn’t have years! Kya would be returning in a few short months!</p><p>   She couldn’t face her and tell her that she destroyed the first gift she had given her! She couldn’t!</p><p>   Blowing air out her nose in an effort to calm down Lin walks over the various pots and plants that now littered around her living room. Her kitchen, dining area, bathroom, and bedroom were also covered in plants. To the point where she would understand if someone mistook her home for a jungle, she certainly did some days. </p><p>   With a sigh and a book on rare plants around the world under her arm (she had already read through it numerous times but hoped against hope she might find something she missed) she locks her door. Already making plans on when she gets to work. And what she will try when she gets home. She had to figure this out. She had to.</p><p><br/>   Lin stood on the dock in her heavy grey wool coat, the heavy garment covering her metal armor. The winter months always made her wish armor was made of something less prone to absorbing the cold but she had bigger concerns at the moment.</p><p>   She could see the ship now. Less than ten minutes from pulling into the dock where she currently was.</p><p>   Right on time for once.</p><p>   But as excited as she is to see Kya again (she didn’t sleep at all last night and had been unable to focus on anything for the past week) she was also filled with trepidation. Knowing that that meant that she would have to admit what she did. And tell Kya that she had ruined the first gift she had ever given her. Just thinking about it made her sick to her stomach. </p><p>   Lin spends several minutes trying to figure out exactly what she is going to say to Kya. She had been trying to figure that out for the past two weeks, ever since her last hope had blossomed to be bright green of all things, but had yet to figure it out. So lost in thought was Lin that she didn’t notice the ship docking right in front of her. Not even the throngs of people moving down the ramps and past her managed to break her stupor. </p><p>   It wasn’t until a warm and familiar body jumps into her arms, her hand automatically going around the slim waist of the woman who had just thrown herself at her, that she is torn from her thoughts. The familiar laughter of her girlfriend ridding her of whatever apprehension and anxiety she had. Looking up at the shining and smiling face of her beloved she can’t keep the smile off her face as Kya cups her cheeks. Brining their mouths together in a tender kiss. It was soft, sweet, and full of all the yearning the pair had suffered while Kya was away. But now she was back. They were together again. And everything would be okay.</p><p>   For the first time in months, ever since the incident, Lin forgot all about that flower and her guilt. And simply allowed herself to live in the moment.</p><p>   Her cheeks hurt from how much she smiled and her heart was fit to burst with how happy she was. It was all Lin had ever wanted.</p><p> <br/>   She could only delay for so long. They had gone to a café and enjoyed tea in the snow as they caught up. Smiles never leaving their faces as Kya regales her with stories of her travels. One particular story about Kya knocking Fire Lord Zuko and his wife Mai into a pond making them both laugh out loud as two police officers look terrified, at their boss laughing, nearby. Apparently it had even gotten the notoriously stoic Azula to smile, who had been having a picnic with her own wife, Ty Lee.</p><p>   Lin couldn’t help feeling like the dumbest of fools as she smiled whimsically at Kya. </p><p>   She couldn’t have cared less.</p><p>   After the café they had wandered around the city. Resting on a park bench as the snow fell around them, their hands clasped and heads leaning against each other’s as they relished in simply being together.</p><p>   And then Kya had suggested going home for ‘dinner’. Weak in the knees at the comment for more than a few reasons Lin could barely sputter out an invitation to eat at a halfway decent restaurant she knew of before she was dragging her off. Kya following behind amused at her girlfriend’s behavior, even if she knew something was up.</p><p>   Dinner had come and gone without incident. Lin forgetting her nerves and simply talking with the woman who meant more to her than anything. Of course, those nerves returned when dinner ended and she was out of excuses to keep from returning home. Kya had reached for the door only for Lin to slam it shut before pushing her back to it, keeping herself between Kya and her apartment. </p><p>    Moment of truth.</p><p>    “You gonna tell me wh-?”</p><p>   “Listen. Kya. There is-“ they both speak at the same time as Lin rubs at the back of her neck. A nervous habit she only seems to have whenever Kya is around. She motions for Lin to continue as she shuffles nervously.</p><p>   “I… uh….” She was definitely not prepared for this. “i…”</p><p>   Screw it.</p><p>   “I destroyed the plant you gave me! I know it’s horrible and I am sorry! I tried to fix it. I went to every florist in town and tried to replace it but they all said they had never heard of it so I wrote to every florist and horticulturist I could and got the same response. I even wrote to those weird swamp people your parents met but they were no help. So I tried to recreate the flower myself. I got seeds, and pots, and books, and soil and spent months trying to breed and recreate it. Even the flower and plant experts couldn’t help though, not even after they gave me hybrid seeds they had spent years cultivating themselves did I manage it. And… and I didn’t fix it. I ruined the flower and destroyed your gift. Just like I ruin everything.” She had never ranted before in her life. And Lin hated how… small she sounded in that moment. </p><p>   And then a warm had was cupping her cheek, raising her tear full eyes to meet sparkling blue. Full of love and affection and infinite amounts of understanding. She was perfect. And Lin in that moment couldn’t help feeling that she didn’t deserve her.</p><p>   Kya brings their lips together in an impossibly soft kiss. Making all of her sorrow disappear. All thoughts of her mistake and her failure were forgotten. There was nothing but Kya and those impossibly soft lips on her own. </p><p>   Kya pulls away after an eternity, a finger on her lips keeps Lin from chasing her for more. “You ruined nothing. You have done nothing wrong. And you are perfect the way you are.” Lin feels like she might cry with the emotion of the moment. Tears welling unbidden in her eyes. “And anyone who says otherwise is wrong. Even if it is you. And I will tell you as many times as I need to until you believe it was well. Because you, Lin Beifong deserve happiness and joy just as much as anyone. And I only wish that you could see you the way I do. And I will spend my entire life making that happen if I need to.”</p><p>   Lin lets out a choked sob, overcome with the pent up emotions of the past several months. Knowing how Lin is about showing emotion, that being that she doesn’t want anyone to know she feels anything other than anger, ever, Kya opens the door and guides her sniffling girlfriend into her apartment.</p><p>   It’s only when she walks into the living room that she realizes the extent of what Lin had told her. The entire apartment was covered from wall to wall with plants and flowers. They dangled from the ceiling, were held in racks on the walls, were stacked in special containers on the floor. The plants were so tightly packed that she could barely see a foot in front of her with all the foliage. And as much as she wishes she hadn’t in that moment Kya lets out a snicker at just how ridiculous it all was. Leave it to Lin Beifong to obsess for months over a flower because of a simple mistake. She really did deserve better than she had gotten in her life. Toph and Suyin as well as Tenzin doing wonders to destroy Lins self-confidence over the years. And as much as she hated them for that she couldn’t help but let out tiny chuckles as the ridiculousness of the situation she found herself in. chuckles that extent into full blown laughter despite her best efforts to contain it.</p><p>   Lins sniffling stops as she turns to look at Kya, who was now bent over clutching her sides as she doubled over in laughter. She was unsure what was so funny but anything that made such a perfect person laugh was worth it. But she was still curious.</p><p>   “what.” SNIF “what’s so funny?” Lin can’t help the smile that comes to her face as she watches this perfect person laugh so hard.</p><p>   “It’s-. It’s! it- oh spirits. Oooh- okay. Its just that-“ Kya tries to speak but falls into another fit of giggles at whatever it is that she finds so amusing. Willing herself to calm down to explain to her increasingly puzzled ableit amused girlfriend what she was laughing at. “WWooooo. Okay. Wooooof.”</p><p>   Kya stands straight as she walks over to the now smiling Lin. Wrapping her arms around her neck and bringing their faces close together as they sway slowly to a song only they could hear. “It’s just that… well… the flower was fake. It was made of paper and wax. It wasn’t real.”</p><p>   It. It. It. It.</p><p>   It wasn’t real? She spent months worrying over a piece of paper and wax? Trying to recreate something that had never existed to begin with?</p><p>   It wasn’t real.</p><p>   Lin felt that she should have been upset. Angry at herself for not realizing it sooner. For wasting her time trying to create something that didn’t and probably couldn’t exist. But she couldn’t.</p><p>    Regardless of what had happened it had all been worth it. She had learned a great deal about gardening, and sure while she will likely never use the knowledge and could easily go the rest of her life without seeing another garden she had still grown as a person. Something she never would have done without Kya. And while she had been anxious and nervous before it was all worth it to see her smile. So for the first time in the past year, Lin laughed.</p><p>   It really was ridiculous, after all.</p><p>   Her own laughter triggered Kya’s, bringing them together as they tried not to fall to the floor. A futile effort as their legs give out, Kya falling to the floor with Lin laying on top of her, and suddenly all laughter slowly fades. Leaving just the two of them.</p><p>   Reaching up Lin brushes a strand of dark hair away from those beautiful blue eyes. She could happily drown in them.</p><p>   “I love you.”</p><p>   It was the first time Lin had said it. The first time either of them had since that first fight. And in that moment it feels perfect.</p><p>   “I love you too.” The words are spoken so softly Lin almost doesn’t hear them but her heart blooms all the same. Kya brings her lips down to meet her own in a kiss so soft and full of love it almost brings her to tears once again.</p><p>    But the moment is perfect. And despite it all, she wouldn’t change a thing. So long as Kya was with her there wasn’t a damn thing she would ever change.</p><p>   And in the morning she would get rid of all of those damnable plants.</p>
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